The present invention relates to a hard tissue biopsy instrument particularly useful for removing hard tissue from the body of a subject. The invention is especially useful for removing a specimen of bone tissue and/or bone marrow, and is therefore described below with respect to such an application.
The conventional manner of drilling through, and/or of collecting specimens of, hard tissue, such as bone or skull tissue, is to use a conventional drill bit and to collect the particles by suction. For extracting bone marrow, a hollow needle is generally used. Thus, if it is desired to remove both bone tissue and bone marrow, two operations are generally required. Sometimes, it is also desired to remove cells of the bone marrow. This is usually done by a syringe, therefore requiring three operations in the conventional procedure.